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Post by Jooyoung on Mar 11, 2016 2:01:05 GMT
As I was reading Hamlet, I realized that Shakespeare use a lot of comic relief in between the serious events. For example, there was the scene with gravediggers where they challenge each other with riddles. Prior to this scene, Ophelia committed suicide and Hamlet who almost got killed in England revealed the Claudius's dark scheme. Did you guys find any other comic relief in the play? Also, What do you think is the purpose of these comic reliefs?
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Post by Emily on Mar 11, 2016 2:13:34 GMT
In Act 2 Scene 2, Hamlet acts like he is losing his mind and rants and raves in a very strange way. When Polonius comes up to ask him if he knows him, Hamlet replies that Polonius is a fishmonger. This is a very big insult and very satirical, as fishmonger actually means pimp, and Hamlet is calling him a pimp. Even though Hamlet is a prince, Polonius is still a nobleman and of high rank, so it is very unexpected that Hamlet would call him names.
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Post by ETypeRegymon on Mar 20, 2016 13:15:51 GMT
I find Hamlet's method of killing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pretty funny in a dark way, due to how extreme it is. They were unwitting pawns, and Hamlet decides to get them executed for following the orders of their country. Comic relief in general is used to lighten the mood in the story, bringing some variety. Considering this is intended for a stage audience, Shakespeare couldn't make the story grim throughout the whole play, or else people would lose interest since the tone would be the same thing from beginning to end.
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Post by mayurika98 on Mar 20, 2016 13:20:08 GMT
I love the humor that Shakespeare casually drops, here and there, in the play. I especially loved it when Hamlet constantly pestered Polonius with rude comments and the fact that Polonius couldn't respond to Hamlet jokes, was even more funny. The part where Hamlet joked about Polonius's beard really cracked me up but most of all it shocked me. I think Shakespeare included some humor here and there in the play to keep the crowd on the edge of their seat. Having a little laughter here and there never hurt anyone!
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toufiq
Junior Member
Posts: 86 
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Post by toufiq on Mar 20, 2016 14:48:32 GMT
I think he tried to through this small release of tension to prepare the reader for another one. It's just how I feel about it. Because when tension starts rising and finally reaches it's climax you can not just jump into another one without setting up the tone for it again. So I think he used this technique to calm the readers down for bit then drop a new climax or some important event.
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Post by toomuchchanmin on Mar 20, 2016 16:25:33 GMT
The gravediggers scene is an obvious example. Comic reliefs are literally "reliefs". They relieve the audience from tension. Like Hamlet's story itself is very long and gets tedious real quick. Shakespeare needs to make his audience more interested so that they get their full price of admission. Also this play wasn't written for educated people I believe, anyone can come and watch. So it needs to be entertaining to even uneducated people like peasants too.
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Post by juliaj on Mar 21, 2016 5:06:00 GMT
I think there's little bits of humour throughout the play. For example, the characters are a bit suncooly towards each other at times, which adds a little comedy to serious situations. Also, things that aren't funny to the characters might be funny to us, like how Hamlet stabbed Polonius while calling him a rat was a little funny because it's so clearly not a rat and because he just drags him out later so casually it's a little funny. So there are comedic characters like the gravediggers, but I think the play is also comedic at moments in a dark and ironic way as well.
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